Due to that immiment restructuring, all three (well, just Ryans and Smith, really, because 'Dre was sitting out of practice today anyway) had to miss this morning's practice because they wouldn't have been covered by insurance if they'd gotten injured. Their thoughts on the matter are after the jump.

"It’s win-win," said Johnson, who, like the Ryans and Smith, will actually get more money up front in the form of a signing bonus that’s factored differently into the overall salary equation. "You do it to help sign more players. That’s just part of being a teammate. The more players we bring in, the more competition we have, the better the team gets. That’s just the way I look at it.

"We all want to be successful around here, and this is going to help the team be successful."

"I didn’t understand it as first," [Antonio Smith] admitted. "I don’t have any recollection of anybody doing something like this before. It is what it is. I guess it has something to do with the structure of our contracts. I can’t say what made us candidates, but I want to win, so I want to help the team. That’s the main focus."

Added Ryans: "It’s all good. Anything I can do to help us get better, to get where we need to be . . . I’ll do anything to help this team out."

The deadline to get under the cap is 3 p.m. CDT today.